MyCollege – Make College Work for You So You Do Not Have to Pay for It!

Informative, Preparing for College, Single Parents, Technology

Published with Permission
Written by Clifford Stumme
www.TOSMagazine.com

High school graduation is the pinnacle of home school success, but what comes after? You have set your child up for success. From reading lessons at age 3 to finding just the right math curriculum for algebra in high school, you have done everything that you could to make graduation successful and to prepare your child for the “real world.” However, some time, around ninth grade perhaps, something began looming on the academic horizon. You thought, “How will we ever have that much money?” and “Will he be able to pass the ACT or the SAT?” and “For that matter, which test should he take?” and “Where can I get financial aid?”

This unspeakable fear was . . . college.

Most people believe that a four-year degree at a cost of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, is the only way to do college. For years, parents and students have subjected themselves to outrageous tuition fees and years of loan repayment, but there is a way to escape all of that. (more…)

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Plant a Garden in Your Home School

Classes, Classroom Help, Informative, Just For Fun

Published with Permission
Written by Mary Ann Adams
maryannscountrygarden.blogspot.com
www.TOSMagazine.com

Children love to play in the dirt, and tending a vegetable garden gives them that freedom while learning science, math, reading, and other skills that count toward “school time.” My daughters, aged 3 and 6, have played and learned in the garden from the time they stopped eating dirt. My 6-year-old understands which vegetables are seasonally available, saying, “We eat strawberries in the springtime and tomatoes in the summer.” She knows that carrots grow under the ground and that beans grow above the ground, knowledge many children lack when all of a family’s food comes from the grocery store. Gardening helps children understand God’s plan for creation.

If you want to plant a garden for your home school, but have never gardened before, start with a small space; 10 square feet is enough room to grow several plants but small enough to be a pleasure to tend. Folks without yards can garden in large containers. Make sure to choose a spot that gets sun most of the day.

To start a new garden in existing sod, (more…)

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Free Music Software

Classes, Classroom Help, Informative, Technology

Published with Permission
Written by Andy Harris
www.aharrisbooks.net
www.TOSMagazine.com

This month we look over a number of wonderful free tools for creating and enjoying music. Quite a bit of excellent free software is available.

Audio Mixing With Audacity

The most straightforward class of audio tools involves recording and manipulating sounds. Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net) is a marvelous tool for this job. Use it with a microphone to record music or speech, import audio in wav, mp3, or ogg formats, and manipulate the sound waves directly. Once you have recorded or imported a sound, you can tweak it in hundreds of ways: add digital effects play it backwards, cut out parts you don’t need, and much more.

Audacity is a multi-track editor, which means you can record several different audio samples and place them in layers for interaction. (more…)

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